Chapter 40
Shikamaru has broken one of his rules—that to never underestimate his opponent.
He has thought he is winning when he figured it out and caught the real Naruto with a shadow neck bind amidst all those clones but then suddenly a red haze envelops the blonde shinobi. First, a red tail that is solidly infused with chakra extends from Naruto's behind then it is followed by another one. The two tails swish to and fro, breaking and pulverizing whatever they hit. Shikamaru's jutsu is then immediately broken and he has to retreat.
Panting as he hides behind a large solid tree trunk, knowing that any moment Naruto could find him. "Damn. This is getting more than troublesome,"Shikamaru mutters to himself, trying to hide his chakra while he thinks of a way out.
—o0o—
The walls, floor and ceiling of Temari's cage are made of the hardest metal and fortified by a powerful jutsu.
She has already discovered hours ago that if she hits the door with chakra it develops a dent but then the surface disfigurement only remains for a few seconds before it disappears as if it was never there.
Giving up on the door, judging that it has fewer scratches than the walls, suggesting that the door is more unyielding. Temari then investigates the cracks and the remaining dents on the walls' surface instead. She didn't make any of those. One thing is for sure— whoever made those permanent cracks is far stronger than her for the seemingly indestructible jutsu to be broken.
Shikamaru? No, it couldn't have been him. Shikamaru doesn't have that brute strength. He would use his brain to search for any lock or any weakness of the jutsu encasing the room and pick at it with his shadow.
Kankuro? Without his puppets, Kankuro would be in the same position as her, and damn, she would never concede that— that stupid jerk brother of hers is stronger!
So that leaves Gaara. Yes, she can imagine Gaara holding the stuffed bear now reclining on the hard bed.
After all, she had heard rumours during her travels to Suna that Gaara is a jinchuriki, and when she had witnessed Gaara's partial transformation while they were fighting Sasori, it was confirmed. But knowing since she was little that Naruto is a jinchuriki too, that tidbit of information that Suna has its own jinchuriki had not surprised her.
Temari slowly comprehends that it was Gaara who was imprisoned here inside this cage and why. Naruto might have grown up without a parent that would lock him away if there was a threat of him transforming into something uncontrolled and vicious, but Naruto also was imprisoned by the people's hatred of the nine-tailed beast. Both Shikaku and Yoshino have been good enough not to forbid her to talk to the monster as the other Konohans called Naruto.
Her brother, Gaara, has been called a monster too. Twisting her lips, Temari wishes she had beaten those people who whispered and labelled her little brother a 'monster' instead of just shrugging it off back at the time.
When she gets out of this cage she will...she will tell Gaara she's his sister. And damn Kankuro! When she gets her hand on him, he's dead.
Gritting her teeth, she again concentrates chakra on both her hands, doing a fan motion with them to focus the air to hit the biggest crack already clawed on the wall. The area hit emits a blue glow and the crack becomes bigger but once she stops manipulating the air inside her prison the crack diminishes and goes back to its original size.
Catching her breath, Temari proceeds to Plan B and searches for ventilation; there should be one or she would have suffocated inside this well-enclosed cage a long time ago.
Without her weapon, she has to seek another source of gush of wind and wave at it with her arms thereby strengthening her jutsu. Finally, after approximately two hours of searching under the dim light, and depending mostly on her tactile sense, she has found on the floor tiny air vents leading surely to a small underground tunnel only big enough for air to pass through.
With the limited stream of air coming from the minuscule vents, she needs to fan it to increase its force and direct it towards the biggest crack on the wall. But simply waving at it with her arms doesn't produce that much power enough to break the wall. She needs something more...
Glancing back towards the bed, Temari eyes the sleeping surface; its metal should be thinner than the cage walls so it should break. The resulting metal board could be used in lieu of her fan. Temari kicks the bed, concentrating chakra on her feet to try to crack a piece. Undeterred, she continuously kicks and jabs at the metal slab until finally she sees that a portion is now hanging loose instead of re-attaching. Triumphant, knowing she's almost there; she keeps busy going ahead with her plan when suddenly the door creaks open.
"Temari?" a familiar masculine voice inquires.
Temari swivels her head and covers her eyes by cupping her right hand near her brows, unused to the sudden bright light flooding the room. "Gaara?"
Gaara pushes the solid door with his sand floating from his gourd, opening it farther then, without saying another word; he turns around, not waiting for Temari to follow him.
Flustered, Temari addresses Gaara's departing back, "Thank you."
"Dinner's prepared. You better hurry," Gaara replies, not bothering to glance behind him.
TBC
~4/22.5/1/11AF~
A/N: Thanks dJk'.'DJBlossom for the review, it made me revised some plans.
And thank you Ciel Orihara, for telling me things that made me smile.
Review?